A firestorm of protest has swept the Hudson River region of New York in response to CVS’s plans to open stores in nearly a dozen village centers. Having saturated strip malls and highways, chain drugstores in recent years have focused increasingly on Main Street locations.

In the Hudson region, CVS has cut deals to lease sites formerly occupied by grocery stores in several village centers. Ten of the sites were Grand Union outlets, a regional grocery chain that recently filed for bankruptcy.

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In June, the Swedish furniture chain Ikea dropped its proposal to build a 300,000 square foot store on 9-acre site in Brooklyn. The defeat is Ikea’s second in the New York region this year. In February, organized opposition from small business owners and residents forced Ikea to back out of plans to open a store in New Rochelle.

The Brooklyn site is located near Gowanus Canal in a predominantly residential neighborhood. Once the location of a coal transfer station, the land is currently owned by the US Postal Service.

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Having saturated rural and suburban markets, big box retailers are making an aggressive push into central cities. In many communities, however, they are facing strong neighborhood opposition.

Last year, Home Depot, which has 1,100 outlets worldwide, announced its intention to open a store in the Hollywood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. The corporation proposed a 4-block, multistory building that would combine a 100,000 square foot store with offices, apartments, small shops, and two levels of above-ground parking.

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More than 300 residents turned out for a Town Council meeting last month in Ocean Beach, California to voice their opposition to Starbucks. The chain plans to open a store on Newport Avenue, one of the main drags running through this town of 15,000 just north of San Diego.

"There has never been a chain store on this street," noted Dawna Perkins, a member of the Town Planning Board. Ocean Beach is home to numerous locally owned businesses, including eleven coffee shops.

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On May 15, the citizens of Glendale, Arizona voted to uphold city zoning rules that will prevent Wal-Mart from building a 220,000 square foot, 24-hour supercenter. Nearly 60 percent of voters favored maintaining the zoning and keeping Wal-Mart out.

In 1999, the City Council rezoned a 39 acre site from agricultural to commercial in order to allow construction of a shopping center. City officials and nearby residents were led to believe that the center would house small, neighborhood-serving shops in a pedestrian-oriented design.

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The last issue of this Bulletin reported on a grassroots effort in Petoskey, Michigan to stop a 400,000 square foot chain retail development in a neighboring township.

In April, to the thunderous applause of a packed town hall, the Bear Creek Township Board voted 3-2 to deny the developer’s request to rezone the land from residential and farm-forest to commercial, effectively nixing the big box project.

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